A broken slide at the Dell Rapids swimming pool might not get fixed if city officials cant find the part needed to get it operating again.

The 13-year-old slide in the southwest end of the city pool has gone unused since summer 2012 when one of its plastic segments began cracking. Since then, administration at City Hall has unsuccessfully searched for a new part.

“We’ve been working since the day it broke. There’s a plastic section in the middle (of the slide),” said Justin Weiland, Dell Rapids city administrator. “We’ve searched high and low to get a replacement part.”

Weiland said the manufacturer of the slide, which was installed in 2001 for about $10,000, was purchased by a different company.

“This company took over and doesn’t make this slide anymore, doesn’t have the pieces that fit, doesn’t have the design of the mold that was used to create the inception,” Weiland said.

In spring 2013, Weiland said, city officials thought they had found a replacement, but the new part didn’t fit properly.

“We looked at ways to take that one and rig it up so it worked, but there just wasn’t anyway to do that,” he said.

Weiland told the city council last week what its options are. The slide could continue to go unused and possibly be torn down; a special replacement part could be molded, inspected and installed; or an entirely different slide could be installed using the existing deck and stair.

“By the time that someone went and designed the part, got the insurance on it, got it passed through inspections, it’d be as much as a whole slide,” Weiland said of the first option.

Finding a different slide compatible to the deck and stairs could cost $10,000 or more.

“We have the deck and the stair. We could have someone manufacture just the slide,” Weiland said. “It’d be multiple pieces with multiple supports.”

Councilor Gary Haak said he’d prefer not having a pool slide at all.

“I’d like to see the slide come down,” he said. “Get rid of it.”

Councilor Craig Lauritzen agreed the slide should be removed, but only if it can’t be fixed.

“If we’re not going to be able to find a piece for it, and if we’re not going to be able to afford to replace the section, and the only option is to get a new one, I think we should at least get it out of there,” he said. “We can’t use it, we can’t fix it, so let’s get it out of there.”
The council has about $20,000 in a special pool fund if it chooses to fix the slide or pursue replacing it.

Haak said the money would be better spent on chairs and umbrellas for the pool deck.

“I’d like to see us have nicer chairs for the adults that sit there and watch their kids and some umbrellas for some shade.”

Weiland told the council plans were already in the works to spend about $3,000 on umbrellas and deck chairs ahead of this year’s pool season.